An In Vitro Microvessel Model Mimicking the Inflammatory Condition for Evaluation of Barrier Function

Abstract

Blood vessel has a barrier function that regulates the flux of substances in and out the vessel—a phenomenon known as vascular permeability. This function is ensured by an endothelial cell monolayer that forms the most inner layer of a blood vessel. During inflammation, inflammatory factors act on endothelial cells to increase vascular permeability. In various diseased conditions, the barrier function is disrupted. Thus an effective method to evaluate vascular permeability is required. However, conventional methods suffer limitations such as difficulty for assessing detailed physiological process. In this article, we introduce a recently developed in vitro 3-dimensional blood vessel model to assess vascular permeability in a biomedical context.